Monthly Archives: December 2015

I’m not often one to share statistics, but I wanted to say thanks to all my followers and to those folks who merely stopped in for a casual read. Wine and spirits are a passion for me and nothing gives me more pleasure than to share that passion with you!

We have lots of things tee’d up for 2016, so stay tuned for another exciting year with Musings on the Vine!

Happy New Year!

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2015 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 8,400 times in 2015. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 3 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

As predicted in that post, we conducted match-up number six and have the following to report.

The sixth installment took place on November 14, 2015, matching a comparable set of eight wines. The results were as follows:

By Wine

Wine

1st

2nd

3rd

Total

(3 pts)

(2 pts)

(1 pt)

1986 Silverado Vineyards

2

3

1

13 pts

1986 Forman

1

0

3

6 pts

1987 Mondavi Reserve

1

1

0

5 pts

1985 Caymus Special Select

3

0

1

10 pts

1986 D’Angludet

0

2

0

4 pts

1989 Cos Laboury

3

4

1

18 pts

1989 Grand Mayne

2

2

2

12 pts

1982 Haut Batailley

5

1

2

19 pts

By Region

Napa Valley

34 pts

Bordeaux

53 pts

Well, as you can see, France took the prize this time around fairly handily.

So after six installments, the results stack up as follows:

France’s lead is back to 4 – 2 in overall wins. Point-wise the French have 202 points to Napa’s 174 points, a widening margin.

A few observations are in order… In this installment, the wines were from closer vintages, which definitely helped the French. The US wines were all very good, but showed their age. On the contrary, the French wines were drinking marvelously – mature but not tired – vibrant with layers of complexity.

The US wines included a Wine Spectator 100-point wine – the 1985 Caymus Special Select and while it garnered a handful of first place votes, the wine was decidedly average.

One of the most touted, or should I say “hyped” vintages is represented with the 1982 Haut Batailley – Robert Parker was made famous by this vintage and interestingly, he did not think much of this wine. He last tasted the wine in 1995 and felt that it might last another 7 – 8 years. Our results suggest that the predictability of aging potential is still more art than science… For me personally, I was thrilled with the quality of the two 1989 Bordeaux wines – both were from the first futures I ever bought!

Where does it go from here? Well if history repeats itself, I imagine a seventh match-up in 2017, either in April, or October…

I struggle with Chartreuse, the French herbal liqueur, made by Carthusian monks at their monastery in the Chartreuse mountains near Grenoble. The monks have been making Chartreuse since 1737 according to a recipe given to them in 1605 by François Annibal d’Estrées. It is composed of distilled alcohol aged with 130 herbs, plants and flowers, and has a strong, herbaceous quality, as well as a healthy percent alcohol. The challenge with Chartreuse is the 130 herbs, plants and flowers. Finding the correct mix of ingredients to blend and balance with the heady mix already present in Chartreuse is akin to the quest for the Holy Grail. I have yet to find a cocktail containing Chartreuse that I truly love. Mind you that doesn’t stop me from searching… remember, great rewards are given unto that brave knight who quests for the Grail!

Enter the Bijou cocktail, a mix of Gin, Vermouth, and Chartreuse. In French, the term “bijou” means “jewel.” The cocktail is said to have been invented by Harry Johnson, one of the forefathers of the classic cocktail and one of the earliest documenters of the craft in his 1900 tome: New and Improved Bartender Manual. Actually, the Bijou stands out as one of the oldest recipes in his book, itself dating to 1890.

The cocktail is presumably called Bijou because it combines the colors of three jewels: Gin for diamond, Vermouth for ruby, and Chartreuse for emerald. An original-style Bijou is made stirred with ice as noted by Harry, but I really prefer my cocktails shaken with crushed ice, so that is my preferred method.

On the palate the three components come together nicely to make for a refreshing and balanced cocktail. The herbaceous quality of the Chartreuse actually finds a nice foil in the sweet, figgy Vermouth, while the Gin lends a clean, refreshing bite on the aftertaste. Quite pleasant indeed.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present the Bijou cocktail…

2 oz. Gin

1 oz. Green Chartreuse

1 oz. Sweet Vermouth

1 dash Angostura Orange Bitters

Combine ingredients in a shaker with ice and shake to chill. Strain into a chilled glass and garnish with an lemon twist (preferred).

I was feeling experimental a while back and decided to create something exotic. As I scanned the bar, an interesting, as yet unused ingredient jumped out at me – Cardamaro – and I started to postulate a theme. My friends all know of my Masonic affiliation, so I thought about a cocktail to honor my Brethren… In scrolling through the endless list of notable Brothers for whom my libation could be named, I came across the perfect dedicatee – Brother Rudyard Kipling!

Bro Rudyard Kipling was born December 30, 1865 in Bombay, India. He is generally considered one of England’s greatest writers and has left the world with an impressive library of notable works. During his life he achieved literary greatness and was richly rewarded for his contributions to the English language. Revisionist history or course has created some polarizing opinions about Bro Kipling, most notably that his writing glorified the imperialism that defined English history in the 19th Century and should therefore not be celebrated, but instead denigrated. Not being a fan of revisionist history, I will move on…

Bro Kipling is believed to have become a Freemason in 1885, which would have been before he turned 21, then the minimum age for membership. Bro Kipling was initiated into Hope and Perseverance Lodge No. 782 in Lahore, India. He was extremely fond of Freemasonry, so much so that he commemorated its ideals in his famous poem, “The Mother Lodge”, and used the fraternity and its symbols as important plot devices in his novella, “The Man Who Would Be King.” The latter was made into a movie starring Sean Connery and Michael Caine, which has regular screenings in Lodges around the world.

In thinking about a theme for my cocktail I began to think about spirits. I knew that I wanted to use Cardamaro, an Italian wine-based amaro featuring cardoon and thistle as a component. Now, because Bro Kipling is intrinsically linked to India and because his Majesty’s forces supporting the Raj were fueled by Gin (unlike His Majesty’s navy, which was fueled by rum), a clean, London dry Gin would be my base spirit. Keeping with the idea of exotic and wanting to create an alluring aroma to the cocktail, I decided that Luxardo Maraschino liqueur would add a nutty, floral note to both the nose and palate of my potation. Last element required to balance this potion – lime juice. I tried lemon juice, but I liked the malic greenness of the lime over the astringency of the lemon.

Bench testing is hard work, and after several tries, we found the proper balance. My impressions? Refreshing with an exotic collection of flavors, building like a well-made curry, but without the heat. Although for a moment I almost tossed in a dash or two of Ancho Reyes, the pepper-infused liqueur from Chile, but thought better of it…

So, in honor of our Brother, Rudyard Kipling, I present a cocktail in his name…

2 oz. London Dry Gin

3/4 oz. Cardamaro

1/2 oz. Maraschino Liqueur

1/2 oz. Lime Juice

2 dashes Cardamom Bitters

Combine ingredients in a shaker with ice and shake to chill. Strain into a chilled glass and garnish with an orange twist (preferred), or a Maraschino cherry.